Hot Money: The New Narcos - Apple TV reportedly orders a series adaptation of the podcast

Apple TV is reportedly working on a new series based on Hot Money: The New Narcos, the investigative podcast from the Financial Times and Pushkin Industries.

It’s another team-up with EDEN Productions, led by Richard Plelper. The podcast first dropped in late 2023 and runs for eight episodes, digging deep into the tangled world of a cocaine super cartel that operates almost like a global corporation.

The story dives into drug trafficking, money laundering, and all sorts of international power plays, moving through different countries and shady networks.

According to Deadline's report, Apple TV plans to keep the same sharp investigation and gripping storytelling from the podcast. Miles Johnson, the Financial Times reporter who helped create and host the original show, is on board as executive producer for the series.

What do we know about Hot Money: The New Narcos?

As per Deadline, Hot Money: The New Narcos dives into the tangled mess behind a mysterious murder in a quiet town, pulling back the curtain on the Kinahan crime family and their far-reaching empire.

The story follows a cocaine super cartel that flipped the global drug trade, revealing how drug smuggling, money laundering, and even state-backed assassinations all tie together. It jumps from Dublin to Dubai, laying out how these criminal networks don’t care about borders and just how they are incorporated into the world’s power structures.

Hot Money: The New Narcos goes straight into the world of Ireland’s most notorious crime family. This group isn’t just big in Europe; they are right at the center of the global drug trade, especially as Europe’s cocaine market explodes and starts to pull in as much money as the U.S. market.

The story kicks off with a murder in a quiet town outside Amsterdam. At first, it just looks like another mob hit. But it quickly turns out there’s way more going on. The killing links back to this family and their massive network, tangled up in an international web of crime. The film paints the cartel as sharp and organized, almost like a corporation. They run drug shipments, launder money, and arrange hits, all while moving through different countries and political systems like it’s just business as usual.

Hot Money: The New Narcos podcast explores Dublin’s role as a key hub, linking up with some pretty unstable places, Dubai, for one. This isn’t just about moving drugs around. The network gets tangled up with sanctioned regimes like Iran.

Iranian intelligence has even used these gangs to carry out murders, turning them into tools for proxy wars and political crackdowns. The details from ongoing investigations make it clear: this cartel isn’t just changing the way drugs move around the world. They are blending organized crime with the kind of power plays you usually see from governments, a level of complexity that most reporting on the drug trade just doesn’t touch.

The podcast description read:

“A middle-aged electrician is murdered in a quiet Amsterdam suburb. The case leads to a web of drugs, money laundering and state-sponsored assassinations that stretches from Dublin to Dubai. At the center is a cocaine super cartel that is revolutionising the global drugs market. Financial Times investigative reporter Miles Johnson exposes the ever-fuzzier line between criminals and legitimate business people and between governments and gangsters.”

Eden Productions is running the show behind the scenes, and Apple TV+ is backing the adaptation as it moves into early development. Miles Johnson is still in the mix, making sure the TV version keeps the same depth and investigative punch as the podcast, reports Deadline.

There is no premiere date yet for Hot Money: The New Narcos, but the plan is to build on the original eight-episode podcast and give viewers more story, more real-world impact, and more time with the people at the heart of it all. With the Financial Times and Pushkin Industries teaming up on this, expect sharp journalism mixed with storytelling that pulls you in.

Viewers might even get more than just the series itself, with extras like behind-the-scenes looks, longer interviews, and deep dives into the real-life crime and global politics that inspired the story. Since the original podcast digs in with serious journalism, this bonus material helps you get your head around how tangled transnational crime can get.

For the uninitiated, Miles Johnson digs into some of the world’s most tangled criminal networks. As the investigative reporter behind Hot Money: The New Narcos, he has chased stories on everything from Russian mercenaries to slick casino heists in Mayfair.

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At the Financial Times, Johnson has uncovered money-laundering schemes tied to the Italian mafia, Vatican financial scandals, and undercover sanctions busting. His work isn’t just desk research; he has spent years on the ground as a foreign correspondent in Rome, Madrid, and New York.

Johnson also wrote Chasing Shadows (Little, Brown Book Group, 2023), where he takes readers deep into the murky worlds of international organized crime, drug trafficking, and terrorism.

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